October 13, 2023 · 4:30 pm

Rocky Mountain High

When I was about 15 years old I got an acoustic guitar for Christmas. Using a John Denver song book I taught myself to play some basic chords (G,C,D) and commenced my season of life as a troubadour of folk music – ala JD. This was also my song writing chapter of life, which lasted about four to five years and mostly revolved around aspirations to live in the Rocky Mountains. I figured if it was good enough for John, it would be good for me.

In fairness, it wasn’t the folk music alone that drew me west. There had been a couple of family vacations where I was exposed to the American west and the Rockies in particular. Perhaps the best such vacation occurred one year when, due to some mechanical vehicular concerns, our plans changed and we spent an entire week in Rocky Mountain National Park. I loved it! We camped, hiked, picnicked, hiked, went to campfire ranger talks, hiked and just enjoyed the beauty of that place.

A couple of years later, as I graduated high school, I pitched taking a summer job in RMNP to my parents. That idea went nowhere, but it illustrated the magnetism the mountains held for me. Years later my family would know a closer proximity to mountains as we lived for a brief time in the Pacific Northwest. One of the true blessings of that time was a view out my office window, on a clear day, that featured Mt. Rainier in the distance. Indeed the view scape of the Cascade Range, mirrored to the west by the Olympic range is hard to beat.

Several family vacations have taken us back west, and back to RMNP, including just this past week. We have a son and daughter-in-law who now make their home in Denver (maybe it’s in the genes?) and enjoy the beauty and adventure the Colorado outdoors has to offer. It’s always good to reconnect with them, and the landscapes they love, and to be able to see and hear about life in the mountain west through their experiences.

Psalm 121:1-2 says, I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and the earth.

This psalm has long been a favorite and captures my image of God as Creator. Oceans are great, and have their vast beauty, but for me it’s mountains that speak to God’s grand design. They stand as vast sentinels pointing upward, bearing witness to the One who called them forth. Time in the mountains, for me, is soul settling. It offers a reset, causing one to consider the finitude of one’s life in contrast to the magnitude of God’s grandeur.

Here’s how my 15 or 16 year old self once wrote & sang about these things: I dream of the mountains, the life that I long for; my quest for the freedom to climb to the sky. They tower above me in beauty and splendor, their greatness and stillness I see with my eye.
Yes God made the mountains and forest below them, the lakes and the streams that are part of the sights. So when I am in them, I’ll give God the glory and thanks for the wonder and majestic heights.

For the mountains are God’s work, the display of the Artist, they are part of creation reaching up to the sky. And since God made the mountains, in all of their beauty, who can picture the heavens we’ll see when we die?

2 Comments

Filed under Christian Faith, Family, Spiritual Formation, Travel

Tagged as

August 10, 2023 · 6:38 pm

Thoughts from an August Garden

It has happened again! My garden has suffered a collision with the month of August. Allow me to explain. During the early Spring months I look forward to planting the annual vegetable and flower gardens on our property. I usually plan things out, sometimes even drawing out a sketch of how and where to plant things. I evaluate where plants were last year, how they did, how things could be improved, what takes up the most room, what needs protection from nibbling varmits, etc. Then comes the fun part – preparing the soil, planting the seed, transplanting the plants and watching things take root and grow.

Things usually go swimmingly up until August. I enjoy the ongoing cultivation, don’t even mind the weeding, and certainly have fun inviting the grandsons in to help with the harvest of various fruits and vegetables. Youngest grand Jon loves to help water, and oldest grand Oliver has long been a garden buddy. They each take joy, Elliott included, in carrying a fresh squash or tomato into their Lolly or Momma. But come August, after days of sweltering heat, periods of no rain – and, to be honest a little neglect on my part – the garden looks a bit sad.

Here’s the current state of things this August, as well as a recounting of the season thus far:

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Christian Faith, Ministry, Passageways, Pastors, Spiritual Formation, Uncategorized

August 4, 2023 · 11:39 am

Staying Positive in a Negative World

In case you haven’t noticed we are living in a period of history when there is a good deal of negativity. Perhaps that’s not too different from other times, but this is our time and so it’s notable. I hear it in people’s words when they say things like, “I don’t like the way things are going . . . (fill in the blank: at work, in our country, with the church, etc.)” We hear it in the news media – one report after another of “bad” news. We see it in the behaviors and countenance of others. Seems to me the world – or at least the part of it that I see regularly – is in a rather grumpy mood. Some people are trying to capitalize on this by stirring up even more negativity, projecting violence onto others, or just being difficult to be around.

So, what to do? What is our response, particularly as people of “Good News”, to life in such a negative climate? While I am no expert in this field, over the past few years I’ve tried to adopt some personal behaviors and live by some decisions that help me stay positive in this negative environment. Do I succeed all the time? No, but I offer these steps to you, here, in hopes they might prompt your own decisions and actions of positive preservation.

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under Christian Faith, Hope, Ministry

July 27, 2023 · 3:46 pm

Becoming an Apprentice in the Jesus Way of Life

According to the Cambridge Dictionary an apprentice is “someone who has agreed to work for a skilled person for a particular period of time in order to learn that person’s skills”. Merriam Webster adds, that an apprenticeship is “an arrangement in which someone learns an art, trade, or job under another”.

Skilled trades often come to mind when I think about someone who is an apprentice or serving an apprenticeship – trades like carpenters, plumbers and electricians. But what if we were to think of our life in Christ, our life of discipleship in the terms of apprenticeship? Could such an understanding bring a freshness or new energy and eagerness to how one endeavors to follow Jesus?

I’m not sure that “disciple” or “discipleship” are completely overused or worn out terms, or that they carry the negative connotation for some Christ followers, and pre-Christians as say the word “evangelism”. But, both words are oft used in the church and Christ following circles. How many times in a sermon have you heard the word “disciple” used? Or, how many times is “discipleship” a topic of a prayer or a devotional writing you may participate in? (Maybe you should count?) Sometimes a new or different word causes us to pay attention in a new or fresh way. Thinking about being an apprentice of Jesus has done this for me.

What works in this understanding is that following Jesus has always been about a way of life. When Jesus was first approached by a couple of the disciples of John, curious about this one John had identified as the “Lamb of God”, Jesus invites them to “come and see” where he is staying? It’s a way of saying, come and try this out, follow me, learn from me. Certainly there must have been information and teaching shared, the didactic part of discipleship, but that’s not what is most obvious about their following Jesus. What’s most obvious is that they spent time with him, literally shared life with him, watched and learned from him, maybe even began to imitate the things he said and did. They became his apprentices.

Somewhere in its history the church turned discipleship away from this “way of life” approach toward more and more of a cognitive, what we believe, approach. Doctrine overtook praxis as the definitive marker of discipleship. We worried more about what we thought, than how we acted. We heard Jesus say, “love one another as I have loved you”, but turned that into a doctrine of loving your neighbor verses a way of life steeped in the practice of loving those who are our neighbor.

Continue reading →

4 Comments

Filed under Christian Faith, Ministry, Spiritual Formation, Uncategorized

May 22, 2023 · 10:10 pm

Pondering Pentecost

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house . . . . Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
(Acts 2:1-4 NRSV)

Imagine you were there, in the city for the Pentecost festival, celebrating and giving thanks for the first fruits of the wheat harvest. Maybe you traveled some distance to attend, as was expected of the devout worshippers of the One God. Others were present as residents of Jerusalem, having made the City of David their home some years prior. Whatever the situation, just 50 days prior you had been present for the Passover festival, and now it was Pentecost.

Your memories from Passover were still fresh. You had been among the pilgrims when the One they called Messiah entered the city. You were aware of his arrest just a few days later. Then you heard he had been crucified – another victim of Rome’s brutal sense of justice.

But the most astonishing reports had circulated in the days that followed, that he was somehow once again alive! These reports even reached your home town miles and days away from Jerusalem. Could it be true? Now, back in the Holy City, reports from the grapevine newsfeed were that his followers had resurfaced, and were preaching and teaching in this risen One’s name.

Coming to Jerusalem for a major festival was always a melting pot experience. People of different lands, languages and ethnicities gathered in the common cause of faith and devotion. Jews and God Fearers alike occupied the city, with some Gentiles around, looking to profit off the business opportunities a crowd brings. And, of course, the ever present Romans, keeping – enforcing – the peace.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under Christian Faith, Holy Days, Ministry, Spiritual Formation

Tagged as ,